[Red] Velvet Cupcakes w/ Chocolate Ganache

Wow, I've really been baking a lot lately! I've also been cooking but have been too lazy to take pictures of the food and whatnot. Anyway, Michael's birthday was the other day (Oct. 6) so I made him some cupcakes for the celebration! This recipe is for red velvet cupcakes but I had no red food coloring so they are just... velvet cupcakes. I made a bunch of small cupcakes for his students and a few big ones for us. I used this recipe for the cupcakes but I will repost it here.

Ingredients:

2 c. soy milk

2 tsp. apple cider vinegar

2 1/2 c. unbleached all-purpose flour

2 c. sugar

4 tbsp. unsweetened cocoa powder

1 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. salt

1/3 c. oil

1/3 c. unsweetened applesauce

4 tsp. vanilla extract

Instructions:

- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

- Mix soy milk and vinger. Set aside to curdle.

- In a large bowl, mix all dry ingredients.

- In a small bowl, mix the oil, applesauce, vanilla, and your curdled milk.

- Combine wet ingredients with the dry and mix well.

- Fill cupcake liners to about 3/4 full. I didn't have any liners so I just made sure to grease the pans very well.

- Bake for 20 - 22 minutes until done.

- Place cupcakes on cooling racks and cool completely before icing.

- For ganache, use a double boiler. If you don't have a double boiler, just get a small pot and boil a few cups of water in it on medium-high heat. Place a metal bowl on top for your ganache. I used chocolate chips, a couple tablespoons of margarine, and a couple tablespoons of soy milk.

- Heat up soy milk and margarine until the margarine is completely melted. Add in chocolate chips and stir until smooth.

- Spoon warm ganache onto cupcakes (I sprinkled some sweetened coconut on half of them) and let cool until ganache hardens.

I'm glad Michael gave away all the tiny cupcakes to his students or else I would've had a hard time staying away from these babies. They were very good and I'm glad I added some coconut to ours (I only made about 8 big cupcakes for us). They definitely tasted like red velvet cupcakes... if only I had some red dye! I do, however, think the bigger ones tasted better than the small ones. I feel like the small ones didn't have enough softness to them or something. Either way, they were all delicious (the kids ended up eating every single one of the 36 small cupcakes!). I'm definitely going to keep this recipe on hand for later use. I don't eat boxed red velvet mix because of the hydrogenated oils and such so I'm pleased this turned out well!